Citi Bike: Success story or media spin?

Two months after the long-delayed launch of the city’s bike-share program, one thing is clear: It has put a lot more people on bikes, both royal-blue ones and New Yorkers’ own variously hued mounts. But the program remains controversial.

Is the city’s bike-share program working?

No. All those bikes on the streets have only made traffic worse and parking harder to find.

No. It’s a great idea, but too many of the stands don’t have any bikes in rush hours and too many of the bicycles are broken.

Yes. Having more people getting around town on two wheels is making it easier for folks like me to get a cab or snag a seat on mass transit.

Yes. Citi Bikes are a fun, fast and healthy way to get around town. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I agree with compliance of the law issue. In general, the people who use bikes in NYC are oblivious to the laws that apply to them: riding not permitted on sidewalks; riding the worng way on one-way streets; not stopping for traffic lights; and disobeying safety laws, in general. Police must enforce these rules!

Biking is fine, the program is for a minute part of the population that uses it for only a part of the year, but it costs the city millions. It doesn’t help public transportation as most bikers do not own cars or wouldn’t use their cars for the trips that they make on a bike. If anything, public transportation loses their fares when a bike is sunbsituted for a bike ride.The bike stands cost the city lost revenue as the bike stands are placed on streets where income producing parking meters once stood, as well as valuable parking spaces. Additionally, the bike lanes decreases the number of lanes on every street where they are. Double parking trucks then reduce another lane of traffic further increasing congestion. As the exhaust spewing congestion increases, the pedestrians are frightened by the bikers who choose to run lights and bike the wrong way onb a one way street. We are stuck with this program unfortunately. The best we can hope is no further expansion.

The truth is the City of New York is using this bicycle campaign as a plan to lessen the already limited amount of vehicle parking spaces, this plan results in more vehicle violations and Marshall impoundments. The city makes $500 million a year on parking violations and vehicle impoundments alone, A New York City Marshall can make up to $50 million a year off of towing fees and vehicle auctions. They have taken away many sidewalk parking spaces and replaced them with bicycle lanes that are rarely used by the cyclists they are paved for. Please know that the City of New York is a bottom line business, that’s the reason why we have a billionaire who can break the mayoral election laws and run for a third term all while spending a record $75 million on a campaign for a position that he only accept a $1 for. As much as this bicycle movement is dressed in efforts to lessen vehicle traffic, the real motives are far more financially congested than that.